Driven: Hyundai Genesis sedan

Matt Campbell tries to figure out what Hyundai is trying to achieve with its big luxury V8 sedan.

In America it competes with the likes of Lexus and Infiniti, pitching it square into established prestige territory. But Hyundai is a budget brand in Australia.

Finding buyers willing to forego a Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW or even a Holden Caprice by spending upwards of $60,000 on a Hyundai could be the real miracle, let alone a large sedan - a style of car that is rapidly falling out of favour with buyers.

Performance – and features – for the money will be key to the sales pitch for the Genesis in Australia. Available with a V6 or V8 engine, the large Hyundai will also be generously appointed.

Related Content

"A good parallel might be the Chrysler 300C SRT8," Thomas says. "I know that Chrysler were very proud of what they got the price down to ($66,000), so you could make a parallel with that."

But there's no doubt it would be a tough sell, as the brand's recently appointed local chief operating officer, John Elsworth, could attest. As the former sales and marketing boss for Holden, Elsworth has an intricate knowledge of the Australian market, and knows what it takes to sell a high-end sedan here.

"We simply don't know what we have to price the car at so far, or what we're going to do. But it has obviously got to make sense," Thomas says.

Advertisement

"Currently our top priced car is the Santa Fe Highlander at about $50,000," he says. "In the States they have a natural stepping stone [in moving up the model lines] with the Azera [large sedan].

"In Australia we haven't had that. So this is coming in at the top end. But we don't know what we could price it at because we don't know the specification of the car. Given that the current most-expensive car is $50k, it's a very interesting problem to have."

But Thomas says that right now could be the best time in the company's history to have a punt at it. Hyundai is the fourth highest selling brand in Australia and has been growing strongly since 2008; in those five years it doubled sales to 91,536.

"I think the brand, at the moment, is pretty close to being able to wear that kind of car," he says. "But not at a huge price. That's my personal opinion.

"[We should know whether we will take the car] probably within two months."

In the past, other affordable brands have attempted to market higher-priced, more luxury-focused models on the Australian market. Some, such as SsangYong, ambitiously tried to tackle the luxury elite, while Honda has also tried to break into the German-dominated stranglehold.

Even Volkswagen, a brand with a strong reputation and the ability to sell cars at a premium price was forced to abandon plans to sell its Phaeton limousine locally because the brand did not have the cache at the top end of the market.

In luxury land, the power of the brand is paramount.

Which is why Hyundai in the past has considered a luxury offshoot – similar to Lexus (Toyota's luxury brand) and Infiniti (Nissan).

However, Thomas says if the car is to be sold locally, it will not be under any other brand but Hyundai.

"It won't be a sub-brand. It would be badged as a Hyundai, and it would be sold in Hyundai dealerships.

"Any more than that we just don't know at the moment. We don't know which dealers, we don't know how many, we don't know whether where will be separate areas for Genesis or anything like that."

Thomas says Hyundai Australia will have to make a decision soon.

"The next-generation Genesis sedan will be at [the Detroit motor show] next year. So I think you can take from that, given the global rollout, we will be looking at it at around that time, if we decide to take it," Thomas says.

"We don't know what the equipment level is going to be on the car yet ... But we're looking at it as a business case," Thomas says. "It's not confirmed by any means and we're still getting more and more information on the car."

"It's going to be right-hand-drive, it's going to be available – we just need to work out how we sell it: at what price, where, how, and all the rest of it."